macholand.net raise€¦ · globally with 1.6 billion active users in april of 2016.4 both men and...

RAISE YOUR VOICE

Tips & Tools for Social Media Advocacy

MACHOLAND.NET

NABZ-IRAN.ORG

MACHOLAND.NETNABZ-IRAN.ORG Tips & Tools for Social Media Advocacy

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Social media allows us to connect and interact with a wide audience across different demographics. More often than not social media platforms are used as mediums to inform citizens about issues and to draw in their support for social change initiatives. This guide provides citizens, activists and social change actors with an overview of popular social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and offers tips on how to effectively use each platform to influence and drive change.

This guide has also been designed to support Iranian women seeking to increase their presence and amplify their voices on the issues that matter via social media. Despite advancements in Iranian women’s public participation, social, cultural and political norms and policies still exist within the current Iranian context, calling for women to step back from public life and to devote their time to traditional roles as wives and mothers within private spheres.

Providing opportunities for Iranian women to play more active roles as citizens and supporting their efforts to raise awareness on the issues that matter to them is now as crucial as ever. Having Iranian women’s voices represented on social media is one important way to support and increase their public participation.

While women are gaining a voice online, they are often facing challenges. Online harassment – threats of violence and sexual harassment – impact women more than men, both in Iran and globally. Baaroo, an organization based in the Netherlands, has written a study that examines how Iranian internet users view online sexual harassment.

Purpose of this Manual

https://baaroo.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Narrative-Report-Online-Women-Harassment.pdf

https://baaroo.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Narrative-Report-Online-Women-Harassment.pdf


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Global internet usage continues to grow at a steady pace, and 3.4 billion or 46% of the total global population is now online,1 growing at approximately 10% growth rate in the last year. In 2016, roughly 2.3 billion people or approximately 70% of those online use social media platforms 3

From 2015 to 2016, active social media users grew by 10%, in part driven by growth in mobile device usage and increased traction in mobile social networks.2 Social platforms result in high user engagement and repeat usage for connecting with friends, family, news, games, and shopping. For example, 54% of active Facebook users said that they accessed the network at least once a day.While there is some variation by country and region, Facebook is by far the biggest social network globally with 1.6 billion active users in April of 2016.4 Both men and women use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. While Facebook and Instagram tend to have a higher proportion of female users, Twitter tends to have a higher proportion of male users.

Looking specifically at Iran, information on Internet usage is more difficult to come by and varies wildly. TechRasa, a platform that shares the activities of Iran’s technology startup community, cites a report in November 2015 that estimates penetration at 82%, up from 73% the prior year.5 The report attributes the largest segment of users as mobile 38%, followed by ADSL at 22%, dial up at 9%, fiber optic at 8%, and WiMAX at 4%.6 In Iran it is even harder to find credible social media usage estimates as half of the most popular social media platforms are blocked to Iranians. Here’s some additional information from TechRasa:

While currently banned in Iran, Twitter is growing in popularity, especially amongst Iranian youth. It is used by President Hassan Rouhani and Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign Minister.

In 2012, a study from Chimigi estimated 58% of Iranians used Facebook regularly. According to Ali Janati, Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, there were about 4- 4.5 million active Facebook users in Iran by February 2015. Facebook remains banned in Iran.

1 http://www.statista.com/statistics/273018/number-of-internet-users-worldwide2 http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research3 http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research4 http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/5 http://techrasa.com/2015/11/20/infographic-internet-penetration-iran/6 WiMAX stands for the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, a group of wireless communication standards.

In contrast, Instagram has not been blocked but has had “intelligent filtering implemented to block criminal and immoral content and selected pages (e.g., celebrities).” Techrasa estimated that there are at least 10 million Instagram users in Iran.

Introduction & Context

Twitter Facebook Instagram

http://techrasa.com/2015/08/30/iran-even-president-digs-social-media


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Nabz-Iran, or “Pulse of Iran,” is a secure platform for amplifying Iranian voices by collecting, mapping, sharing and prompting discussion on information related to various rights in Iran. Nabz-Iran also provide resources and training materials to help Iranians advocate for greater accountability and related reforms.

Information on Nabz-Iran comes from individual contributors and partner groups, and is gathered through on-the-ground witnesses, personal and professional networks and Iranian media sources. Resources on the platform include online courses for building monitoring and advocacy skills, maps and other infographics presenting data, analysis of legislation and international agreements to which Iran is a signatory, manuals and guides to support activists, multimedia components to spark dialogue and conversations, and more.

Nabz-Iran does not advocate directly for specific policies and partners with a wide range of Iranian activists and international organizations to promote experience sharing, skills development and dialogue. Nabz-Iran does not accept any funding that is tied to a particular political party or faction, requires support for a particular governmental policy, or otherwise compromises Nabz-Iran’s independence.

Macholand.org is a network of anti-sexist digital platforms around the globe. Initiated by macholand.fr which was launch in France in October 2014, it seeks to unite and promote the fight against sexism, and to empower activists who fight for freedom and equality.

MachoLand.org/fa, as a part of the Macholand network, is first of all an expression of being fed up with legitimized sexism in our world, which we name MachoLand. The aim of this platform sensitive to sexism and LGBTQI phobia is to reduce discrimination in acts and thoughts, of course, but also tell what it is and what forms it can take! The Farsi section provides a participative platform to act against sexism in Iran and other Farsi-speaking public spaces, based on two values: Education and Accountability, giving you the choice to click and act on suggested actions or suggest a reaction to a speech and act yourself!

About Nabz-Iran

About Macholand


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For the three most popular social media platforms – Twitter, Facebook and Instagram – there are some important nuances to consider when engaging in activities. The below section provides an overview of key terminology, a step-by-step guide for how to create an account, find people, and post content for each platform. In addition, this section explains how you can increase your followers on each platform with more robust posting and advertising.

Twitter is an information sharing network where users post 140-character messages called “Tweets.” Twitter is a way to discover interesting people online and learn about the latest news you care about in real time.

First, you will need to create a username. A username is how you are identified on Twitter, and is preceded by the @ symbol. People will use your @username to mention you in Tweets, send you a message or link to your profile. For instance, Nabz-Iran is @NabzIran, or MachoLand is @MachoLand_Fa.

Getting Started

Twitter

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

What is Twitter?Visit the Twitter Glossary to review terminology used to talk about Twitter features.

How do I start using Twitter?

7 “Getting started with Twitter,” https://support.twitter.com/articles/215585

https://support.twitter.com/articles/166337


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Once you’ve created your username, you are ready to start finding and following others. To start following people search for people you know, news sources you read, celebrities, organizations, politicians, journalists, etc. Following someone on Twitter

means that you are subscribed to their account to view their Tweets. Your “timeline” - or home page - will be made up of messages from users you choose to follow so it will contain information you find the most interesting and valuable.

If you chose to not follow users, you can create lists. Lists are a great way for grouping together similar tweets. You can create a public or private list to follow news, or other categories at a glance. You can also add users you follow to a list. Now that you’ve started to follow people, messages or “Tweets” from the users you follow will now appear on your timeline. Because Tweets are posted in real time, every time you log into your account you will have a new page of information to read. You can also click on links in Tweets to view articles, images or videos. Click “hashtagged” keywords (#word) to view all Tweets about that topic.

The best way to gain followers on Twitter is to regularly engage and contribute in a meaningful way.

Tip: A great way to find interesting users is see who those you know or respect are following.

Tip: Twitter is a great platform for engaging with influencers on an individual level. Directly mention (@username) people in a Tweet and respond to them in a timely manner. Making your conversations visible will help you build your own.

HOW DO I BUILD MY TWITTERINFLUENCE?

Once you are familiar with the basics of Twitter, consider using some of the platform’s more advanced

features, like including images or

videos in Tweets.


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What is a Retweet?

A Retweet is a re-posting of a Tweet. Twitter’s retweet feature helps you and others quickly share that Tweet. People sometimes type “RT” at the beginning of a Tweet to indicate that they are re-posting someone else’s Tweet. Retweets look like regular Tweets, but are identified by the retweet icon and the name of the user retweeting.

What is a Reply?

A reply is a response to a Tweet that begins with the @username of the person you’re replying to. You can reply by clicking the Reply button on a Tweet. Any Tweet that is a reply to you begins with your @username and will show up in your notifications tab.

1Retweet and ReplyTo start building your Twitter reputation or voice, you might start off using other people’s Tweets to show others what you care about. You can do this by RETWEETING message you like or replying to a message.

Mention Other Users in Your TweetsWhen you start posting your own original Tweets consider mentioning other users by their Twitter name (@username) in your Tweets. This can help draw more attention to your Tweet as the followers of the user you mention will also see your Tweet.

Hashtags (#)Hashtags let everyone chime in to a single conversation and are great to use to insert your thoughts into a conversation, especially when you don’t have a large number of followers already. They’ll also show you trending topics that you can take advantage of in the real world.

Tip: If you are a new user, others are more likely to find your messages if they are retweets or replies.


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Facebook is the largest social networking site with over 1 billion users where people can share information and interact with others around the world. While Facebook is great for social purposes and staying connected with friends and family, many people use Facebook to receive the latest news updates, share their opinions, and raise issues they care about.

The first step is to register with Facebook. Go to the Facebook homepage and enter your full name and email address, create a password and click “sign-up.” The name you enter will become your username. Similar to Twitter, your username will be how people connect with you. People will use your username to mention in posts (@username), send you messages or link to your profile.

Once you create your account it’s time to fill in your profile. Users will view your profile to learn more about you and the issues you care about. As part of your profile, you will have a “Timeline.” Your Timeline is where you can see your posts or posts you’ve been included in, displayed by date.Now it is time to start searching for and adding “friends” and “following” pages so you can receive updates on your homepage, or newsfeed. Adding friends and following Facebook pages is a great way to fine-tune your newsfeed and stay up to date on the latest news, issues, opinions, and activities.

Friends are people you connect with on Facebook. You can send as well as receive friend requests from other Facebook members.

Following is a way to subscribe to a certain Facebook page of an organization, people (politicians, journalists, and celebrities), news outlets, etc. Once you follow a page you will receive updates and news from that page in your newsfeed. To follow someone use the search bar at the top of any Facebook page, begin typing the name of the entity you want to follow, select their profile from the list and click “Follow” on the cover photo of their profile.

FacebookWhat is Facebook?Visit the Facebook Glossary to review terminology used to

talk about Facebook features.

How do I start using Facebook?

Tip:As Facebook requires you to input a name, if you are concerned for your safety and security consider using a pseudonym and a separate email for your social media accounts.

8 “Questions you may have,” https://www.facebook.com/help/?helpref=hc_global_nav

https://www.facebook.com/help/219443701509174/


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There are a number of different ways to engage with users and content on Facebook from commenting on

HOW DO I BUILD MY FACEBOOKINFLUENCE?

articles, liking a friends’ picture, or resharing a post of a user

you follow.

Keep in mind, though, that many of these activities will appear on your timeline, and other users will be able to see what posts you’ve engaged with.

Tip: Review Facebook’s privacy settings to manage basic privacy preferences and limit certain people from viewing your posts or posts other people tag you in. You can control the information on your public profile.

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1Comment or shareSharing or commenting on a post is an easy and quick way to share information and engage on issues you care about. When you see a post on your newsfeed you simply leave a comment on that post by typing it in the comment box below a post. Facebook also makes it easy to reshare content. Just click “Share” at the bottom of a post to share it on your Timeline for your Facebook friends to see.

TaggingThe tagging tool is also a great way to foster conversation and create connections among users. Facebook tagging means you mention and directly link to another Facebook user in posts, comments or photos. To tag another user you can either start typing their name directly into a post or you can enter @username in the post.

Hashtags (#)Though most people think of hashtags on Twitter, they are also an effective filtering mechanism on Facebook, and can be used for identifying trending topics. Some they help, other times they hinder performance. It is best to test them out and evaluate their impact on your campaign. Generally, one or two hashtags per post is plenty.

Liking ContentOne of the most powerful tools on Facebook is the ‘Like’ button. By clicking the Like button on a post you are communicating your support for certain activities, articles, opinions and people. The “Like” button is on nearly every piece of Facebook content: status updates, photos, comments, and even ads. Keep in mind that other users will be able to see the posts that you have liked.

9 “Social Media 201: Leveraging Social Media to Increase Your Visibility,” http://www.aauw.org/resource/how-to-use- social-media-for-advocacy/


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Instagram is a photo and video sharing, social networking mobile application. Users take pictures and videos, and share them publically or privately on the application, and/or through other social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Although Instagram has primarily been used to share photos of social activities, it has become a popular advocacy tool.

There are two ways to set up an Instagram account – you can either download the mobile app or go to instagram.com on a computer. On both platforms you will be prompted to either enter your email address and create a username, or login through your Facebook account. Like Twitter and Facebook, your username will be how people connect with you. People will use your username to mention in your posts (@username) and send you direct messages.

The next step is to find and follow friends, and other people or groups of interest. Similar to Twitter and Facebook, you can follow people such as, politicians, journalists, and celebrities. Keep in mind, that as you start to follow users they might start to follow you back, especially your Facebook friends. However, if your account is set to private (see Instagram’s privacy settings), anyone who wants to see your posts will have to send you a request, and you can either approve or deny their request.

Once you start following users, pictures and videos will appear on a “feed,” and every time you log into your account you will have new posts to see, like and comment on. Remember, similar to Facebook, your followers can see the posts you like and comment on via the “Following” option. If you don’t want random users following you, you do have the option to block them. To do so, click on their profile name and then click on the menu on the top-right corner of the screen. A pop-up window will appear with a few options; tap “block user.”Instagram also has the option to geo-tag photos you post, meaning it will note where the picture was taken on your profile. If you do not want the location of your photo pinpointed on a map, you can switch off the option “add to your Photo Map” under your profile settings. If you’ve already posted pictures on Instagram and want to remove the location tag, go to your profile and click on the Photo Map tab (it’s the teardrop-shaped icon), then tap the edit button in the top-right corner of your Photo Map. Zoom in and tap a specific photo you’d like to wipe off your Photo Map.

InstagramWhat is Instagram?

How do I start using Instagram?

Tip: A great way to find interesting users is see who those you know or respect are following.

10 Instagram help center, https://help.instagram.com/1415228085373580


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To post a picture or video, you can use images or videos stored on your smartphone and upload them to the application, or you can take pictures or videos directly in the app. In addition to posting single images or videos, you can also use Instagram Stories, a feature that lets you share multiple photos and videos that will appear together in a slideshow format. The photos and videos will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on your profile or in feed.

You’ll see stories from people you follow in a bar at the top of your feed. When there is something new to see, their profile photo will have a colorful ring around it.

While you can start off just by liking and commenting on other users’ posts, the best ways to gain followers on Instagram is by posting engaging, high-quality content (images or videos) for your followers to interact with, and like most platforms, to regularly engage with your audience. Creating high-quality content will also increase your chances of being discovered by non-followers because your posts may appear on the “Explore” tab or “News” tab (where people see that the users they follow have liked your posts). Instagram’s algorithm for how images are organized in a feed is based on engagement and on what it thinks users want to see. This means that users who engaged with your content in the past are more likely to see your post at the top of their feed.11 Similarly, for Instagram you can also use hashtags to associate your post with a particular filter. You can use up to 30 hashtags on each Instagram post, though a general rule of thumb is that 6-8 hashtags are plenty. Also make sure that the hashtags are relevant to your post.

Including a caption to post is one of the most important aspects to contextualize your post (image/video), and catch the eye of someone scrolling through their feed. The caption is a great place to use a hashtag (#word) or mention someone (@username) in a post.

Instagram’s “filter” feature allows users to create visually compelling images. There are 20 filters on Instagram that can be added to a photo to adjust the color balance, contrast and exposure. You can also manually edit a photo through Instagram’s manual editing options instead.

Users can post videos between 15 and 60 seconds, but like a picture, presenting a visually compelling video is the best way to keep your audience engaged and watch the video all the way through to the end.

How do I share content on Instagram?

How do I build my Instagram followers?

PROVIDE CONTEXT

CREATE HIGH-QUALITY IMAGES

CREATECOMPELLINGVIDEOS

11 Change How You Use Instagram for Digital Advocacy, http://modernmedicines.com/entry.php?id=730


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BEST PRACTICES

SOCIAL MEDIAThe following section describes

best practices for social media outreach and engagement. Regardless

of platform, there are several best practices that hold true for driving engagement and activism

through social media. Below is a step-by-step process to devising your social media campaign strategy by answering:

First and foremost, define what you are trying to achieve. Your goals will guide the strategies and tactics that you employ moving forward. Here are some example advocacy and engagement goals, and how you could address them:

Awareness/Persuasion: If you want to build awareness on an issue or persuade a group of people, you would likely devise a campaign to drive engagement and use video content.

Supporter Recruitment / List-building: If you are looking to recruit supporters, you may want to use an online petition platform to drive contacts to targeted groups (e.g. elected officials). Most of the time, this approach also captures email addresses and contact info, as well as likes and comments to be used in other aspects of the campaign.

What are you trying to do? Set Goals

How will you measure effectiveness? Define Metrics

Who are you trying to reach? Reach Your Audience

Why will they care? Tell Your Story

How will you break through? Develop Engaging Content

1 Set Goals

However, platforms like Change.org or Avaaz are not recommended for Iranian users as these platforms collect sensitive and identifiable information that can put users at risk. Instead, for example, organizations like Macholand develop petitions using Google forms or request a call to action via email.

https://gsuite.google.com/intl/en_us/products/forms/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=na-US-all-en-dr-bkws-all-super-trial-e-na&utm_content=text-ad-none-any-DEV_c-CRE_146165379038-ADGP_SC%20-%20Google%20Forms%20-%20Exact-KWID_43700008025214556&utm_term=KW_google%20forms-ST_google%20forms


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Once you know what your goal is, you need to know how to measure it. A metric is a measurement that you use to assess the effectiveness of your campaign. By establishing and defining your success metrics, you can determine if your strategy is working or if you need to adjust your approach.If you’re running an awareness campaign, for example, you would likely establish and

As you embark upon your campaign you need to know who you are trying to reach. They can be defined demographically (gender, age, education, etc.), behaviorally (interests, prior actions), geographically (country, city, postal code) or other ways.

To drive organic sharing of content, you should identify topics and content that your audience will be more likely to respond to. These can be more serious topics such as education, health care and women’s rights or more mainstream – celebrities, movies, artists, musicians, etc.

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Define Metrics

ReachYourAudience

track metrics on video views, completed video views, shares, comments and likes. Or if you are building a list of supporters, you wouldlikely define and track metrics including clicks, click through rate, signups and conversion rates.

Similarly, you can define your own or leverage existing hashtags to increase the visibility of your messaging.

Hashtags are words or phrases preceded by the hash or pound sign (#) and used to identify messages on a specific topic. People use hashtags on social media to filter content on a particular topic, and review what’s trending. If you want to make sure your post is seen by people, you may want to include related hashtags so your content can be found.

Hashtags.org is a good free resource to identify popular and trending hashtags.


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Keep it shortThe first rules to hashtags is that they need to be brief—a few words or a short phrase. No one will remember a hashtag that is an entire sentence. Note that in languages like Farsi, you won’t use underscores (_) when letters are not connected between words. When looking for popular hashtags in Farsi, check to see if users are applying hashtags with underscores, and then follow and/or use the most commonly used hashtag.

Be ClearA hashtag is only as strong it is usable. An ambiguous hashtag is unlikely to gain traction because people won’t know what it means or what to do with it.

Make it timelyUnderstand the context of the social media sphere – what are people talking about? Can you piggy-back on a topic that is getting a lot of attention? When you can jump in on a hot topic, you can easily redirect users to your page.

Evoke emotionHashtags that evoke an emotionalresponse are a great way to catch users’ attention and motivate them to share your post. Hashtags that are funny, or clever, or pull at the heartstrings are more likely to catch on quickly.

Keep it relevant Make sure the hashtag stays true to what you are promoting. While coming up with a unique and catchy hashtag is effective, you must take into account what you are trying to achieve.

TOP 5 TIPS FOR CREATING A #HASHTAG


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Another way to ensure your postings get visibility organically is by having other well-known influencers (e.g., popular figures) share your content to their followers. Admittedly, it is often difficult to secure public support for your issue in this way, but it can be effective.

What are you communicating? Why will your audience care? Work backwards from your audience’s interests, and clearly communicate the solution you offer to a problem they experience.

Consider developing a messaging calendar and identify several themes that you can weave through your campaign, and refer back to over time. Messaging calendars allow you to plan posts in advance, for example, scheduling the sharing of certain content pieces around international or local events. By taking the time to plan your social media in advance, you can make sure that you are sharing quality and timely content across your channels, which is one of the most

Finally, identifying other organizations or people with whom you can partner with can help spread your message is important, especially early on when you are building your own network from scratch. In return, this means cross-posting their content from time to time. You can also generate content together that both organizations can share.

4 TellYourStory

important things you can do to engage your audience.12

For example, Nabz-Iran has analyzed topics that are important to Iranian women on Twitter and identified hijab, sport, healthcare, politics and economics issues as all being topics of interest. Nabz- Iran also watched for news stories that were relevant to their issues in order to capitalize on them.

If you’ve identified education as a topic that our target audience cares about, you can frame the issue in a way that women are more

likely to respond to, such as asking questions about access to education, educational obstacles, educational triumphs.

12 “Four steps for creating a social media calendar,” http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-editorial- calendar/

This strategy works particularly well when your audiences and goals are aligned and complementary.

https://www.nabz-iran.com/en/content/resource-english/how-social-networks-reflect-women%E2%80%99s-voices-around-elections

https://www.nabz-iran.com/en/content/resource-english/how-social-networks-reflect-women%E2%80%99s-voices-around-elections


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Creating engaging content is critical to your message breaking through on social media. Often, this means that the content you curate and independently generate needs to be visual in nature (image/video) as opposed to straight text. Here are some best practices across all three.

5 DevelopEngagingContent

Video content can also work incredibly well, with a couple caveats. On social media, users largely consume content without audio. If running video where the audio is critical to the message, consider adding subtitles and/or overlaying text on the video to reinforce your message visually. Also, the first there seconds of video are key. Make sure to make these first moments striking, and include your ultimate message.

Many social media platforms enable users to broadcast video via a livestreaming option (e.g., Facebook Live or Periscope (Twitter).

These services can be effective for sharing video of specific events as they unfold, and effectively broaden the reach of your audience and connect with people who might not be able to attend in person.

VIDEO

Above: AJ+ video with overlaying text


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The amount of text around a social media post varies by platform both with limits and effectiveness. There is no right answer to how much copy to use, though generally speaking minimal text is optimal for easy understanding by simply scanning the message. Ideally you would not rely only on text for conveying your messages. People generally do not read long text blocks through social media. They are much more inclined to view videos and images, and absorb information that way. That said sometimes it is difficult to incorporate visual elements into all of your social media efforts. If you’re struggling for content, try how-to segments, top 10 lists, comparisons or quizzes or just plain humor.

World Humanitarian Day is used by the United Nations torecognize aid and humanitarian workers worldwide. 2016’stheme is “One Humanity,” and the United Nations has

generated interest in this event via creative hashtags (#ShareHumanity) and compelling posts on Twitter.

Each tweet has featured links to the World Humanitarian Website, the hashtag #WorldHumanitarianDay or #ShareHumanity, and graphics that feature evocative images of aid workers, at-risk children, or infographics that highlight the global crises global aid workers are attempting solve. The United Nations’ simple copy makes this campaign accessible, and the images and infographics they use are purposely used to illicit emotional responses that inspire offline activism from its audience.

TEXT

Left: Twitter - United Nations, World Humanitarian Day


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Beyond images and graphics, infographics and/or iconography, illustrations, cartoons and imagery are important for ensuring your message breaks through. Here are some best practices:

Photos:1. Shoot photos in landscape, not portrait.

2. Look at the composition of the subjects within your photo

3. Use the highest resolution possible. iPhones and other smartphones have come a long way, but dedicated cameras often have higher resolutions and handle low-light or other tricky situations better.

4. Look out for distracting (or detracting) things in the foreground or background. It could be someone wearing a brightly colored shirt that takes your eyes away from the focus, or perhaps someone walked into the frame at just the wrong moment.

IMAGERY


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Infographics:

1. Show, Don’t Tell: Infographics exist to present data in a way that is both succinct and visually stimulating. Avoid overloading your graphic with unnecessary paragraphs and information. All text should be concise and minimal. Keep in mind, that platforms like Facebook do not allow pictures to be posted with a lot over layed text.

2. Size Matters: Research shows that a majority of users access social media via mobile devices. A 600x1400 infographic may look stunning on a desktop, while simultaneously presentinga challenge for mobile users.

Listed below are size options that are appropriate across all platforms:

Facebook: 900x900, 1200x628Instagram: 900x900Twitter: 1200x717, 900x900

Have a lot of information? Consider turning your large infographic into multiple ones and creating a series that can be promoted over the course of a few days/weeks.

3. Be Interesting and Intentional: Pie charts and bar graphs are important, but don’t exclusively rely on them. Use relevant icons and images to make your infographic more interesting. A great example is the one above from the United Nations. Avoid adding unnecessary and unrelated icons, images, or using wild fonts/colors. You can find vector icons on websites like The Noun Project, or as “freebies” on Dribbble or FlatIcon.

4. Be Consistent: Keep your infographic simple by paying attention to margin alignment, choosing a consistent color scheme, utilizing white space, selecting appropriate typefaces, etc. As mentioned above, simplicity is important. Do not overwhelm your audience with things like neon colors and crazy fonts.


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GENERAL GRAPHIC DESIGN TIPS

Use Call-to-Action Elements

Typography

While all of the infographic rules above apply to general social media graphic design, here are a few additional best practices:

Make sure they are specific (e.g., “Add Your Name” or “Get Involved”) and visible, as they can be used to guide users towards your goal conversion. In the OFA example above, they used a large and visually-appealing red button to drive list-building conversion.

Choosing a font can bedifficult, especially when there are endless options. As referenced throughout the guide, it is important to keep things simple and to take your audience into consideration–especially when it comes to typography. What is the font you have chosen saying to your audience? Is it serious, or silly? Is it appropriate for the message you are trying to convey?

With this in mind, it is best to avoid certain fonts such as Comic Sans or Papyrus and instead opt for Gotham, Oswald, Georgia, Helvetica, Avenir, etc. If you are developing graphics in Farsi, the best fonts to use are Gandom and Mitra. While you shouldn’t feel limited to these options, they are a great starting off point.


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ColorPerhaps even more difficult than choosing a font is choosing a color scheme. While there are various websites and apps that will generate color palettes for you (such as Adobe Color CC or Color Hunter), you can also select your own palettes by learning how to properly use a color wheel to determine analogous and complementary colors.

Analogous Colors: Analogous colors are any three colors that are side-by-side on a 12- part color wheel, such as yellow-green, yellow, or yellow-orange.

Complementary Colors: Complementary colors are any 2 colors that sit directly opposite each other, such as blue and orange. These opposing colors create maximum contrast and stability.

Clashing / Contrasting Colors: The more transitional colors separating 2 colors, the greater the contrast. E.g., red-green, or magenta-yellow. While contrasting colors can be used effectively, they are best avoided.

Here is a helpful color chart for reference


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Social media platforms work best when they are used. Your social media presence benefits from frequent posting, commenting, liking, and sharing. It’s helpful if you are able to moderate and respond to comments your posts receive, and will increase their visibility. Be friendly and personable with your language to invite conversation.

Unlike Facebook and Instagram, Twitter does not limit text on images, and allows for animated GIFS, as well as videos. Full design specs are available on Twitter’s advertiser specification page.

Primary formats

Video aspect ratio: 16x9Image: 800 pixels x 320 pixels

Paid promotion

Placement: All ads are in a newsfeed on both desktops and mobile phones.

Targeting: Twitter offers promoted tweets, promoted accounts, promoted trends.You can also target individuals who follow specific accounts.

Model: Twitter ads are an auction-based system, and advertisers are charged whenyou acquire an action, based on your campaign objective. Pricing for Twitter depends on your campaign goals. Some examples include: cost per click, cost per engagement, cost per follow, etc.

Twitter Advertising

5 StayActive

https://business.twitter.com/en/help/campaign-setup/advertiser-card-specifications.html


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Facebook’s algorithms mean that only a small fraction of people who Like your page will see a given post. Many users sometimes boost posts (or pay to have their posts promoted) to ensure more of their followers see a given post. You can also reach outside of your fan base via paid promotion. Facebook offers specific formats and specs for its platform for advertising promotion. It’s best to adhere to these requirements to ensure your posts are as visible as possible. You can find additional information on Facebook’s ad style guide.

Primary formats

Video aspect ratio: 1x1 or 16x9Image: 1200 pixels x 628 pixels

Paid promotion

Placement: Newsfeed ads are best for most goals, given ability to be shown onmobile devices and large in-feed location in the app. While more expensive, they aregenerally more effective as well.

Targeting: Additional targeting is available on Facebook using interest,demographics, behavior, and so on. You can also specify between desktop andmobile and target by devices and or operating systems if needed.

Model: Pricing is based on an auction model, where the price you pay is determinedby the other advertisers’ bids. Pricing for different ad formats varies, generally cost per click or cost per conversion or cost per video view are preferable; cost per thousand impressions is also an option.

Design: For paid promotion, copy cannot exceed 20% of the visual space on the image. For videos, consider 1x1 aspect ratios for the video – you will be able to use the same size on Instagram and it will render better in mobile feeds. Additional information on text usage.

Facebook Advertising

https://www.facebook.com/business/ads-guide/?tab0=Mobile%20News%20Feed

https://www.facebook.com/business/help/980593475366490


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In addition to growing followers organically, you can invest in advertising. Your Instagram ad will appear in people’s feeds. You can find more information on Instagram’s ad style guide (also located on Facebook’s style guide).

Primary formats

Video aspect ratio: 1x1Image: 1080 pixels x 1080 pixels

Paid promotion

Placement: All ads are in a newsfeed on mobile apps as Instagram is a mobile app.

Targeting: Instagram shares Facebooks ad platform and as a result you can targetsimilarly using interest, demographics, behavior, and so on.

Model: Instagram ads are based on an auction model, where the price you pay isdetermined by the other advertisers’ bids. Pricing for different ad formats varies, generally cost per click or cost per conversion or cost per video view are preferable; cost per thousand impressions is also an option.

Design: For paid promotion, and generally overall, copy is discouraged on Instagram. Best performing creatives are visually stunning and evocative or otherwise thought-provoking.

Instagram Advertising

https://www.facebook.com/business/ads-guide/?tab0=Mobile%20News%20Feed


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You can manage your social media presence on each platform directly. However, social media management tools enable you to administer multiple accounts at one time through one interface. These tools are used by organizations and individuals alike to build awareness, manage workflows and engage online communities. The biggest benefit is that they save you time as you are not trying to manage each individual platform separately.

Hootsuite is the most popular social media management tool, and helpful for tracking conversations and measuring results of your online campaigns. In addition, Hootsuite is:

Flexible – Manage Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and 30+ other platforms all in one place.

Affordable – Offer different levels, including a free version and professional option for $9.99 USD per month

Scalable – Grows with you as your needs / activities expand over time

Plan social media content

Publish social media posts

Manage multiple accounts

Respond to inquiries

Automate and schedule social meida posts

Store content and archive posts

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT TOOLS

There are dozens of social media management platforms to choose from. At a bare minimum, your platform should enable you to manage the following across platforms:

https://hootsuite.com/


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The primary drawback of Hootsuite is that it does not offer customer support in the traditional sense. There are ample materials for you to individually review and troubleshoot but not a dedicated customer service

Buffer

IFTTT

SocialOomph

TweetDeck

Tweepi

SproutSocial

SocialBro

CrowdBooster

ArgyleSocial

DashBurst

representative for you to speak with. This operational model is what enables them to offer such a robust service at a low price point.

In addition to Hootsuite, you can look into these social media management tool to find which platform better fits your needs:

https://buffer.com/

https://ifttt.com/

https://www.socialoomph.com/

https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/

https://tweepi.com/

http://sproutsocial.com/

https://audiense.com/

http://crowdbooster.com/

http://argylesocial.com/

https://dashburst.com/


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